Actions and Consequences
by TheAlphabetSong
Summary: "You have 48 hours to sort it out, " Hetty ordered. At the end of the 48 hours she finds a signed letter of resignation on her desk. Whose is it, what caused it and what will come from it. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction or consequence, but sometimes one actiomn can set off a chain reaction of multiple consequences. MULTI-CHAPTER
1. Chapter 1

Actions and Consequences - NCIS LA Fanfiction

A/N - After careful analysis of my original story, I figured out that I actually had no interest in writing it anymore, and as I am a BIG believer in write what you want to write, not what others want you to write I started brain storming again. Thus resulting in my first multi chapter Neric fanfic, it will not ALL be happy, happy sunshine and roses and rainbows. I will promise two things though: 1. I will try not to kill off any characters and 2. The first couple of chapters are fluffy!

Disclaimer- I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.

Chapter 1- Only Four Years

She sat nervously on her couch, fiddling with the sapphire blue ring that she wore on her pinky finger. She was wearing a knee length dress with spaghetti straps, patterned with a summer gradient of orange, pink and purple. She had small wedges on, not a lot of height but enough to not feel like a complete midget.

She checked her watch, it was seven twenty-nine. He wasn't late, it wasn't like he'd decided to bail, and it wasn't like he was going to be exactly on time, and even if he was, it was still a minute early.

She was expecting him to be a few minutes late considering he'd have to battle LA traffic but she was still nervously twiddling and twirling her ring. As soon as the clock hit thirty-one past, and when knocks on her front door started, her heart, head and pulse jumped into hyperdrive.

As an instinct she tried to instantly calm herself. It didn't work, not that it ever did much. Though tonight she swore that it made her heart race about one hundred and fifty times faster. She picked herself up from her couch and walked over to the door. Picking up her small dark peach coloured clutch. It had a long simple chain link strap.

She opened the door and as she saw Eric standing there the realization hit her like a full forced blow.

After all this time; four years. All of the hours spent typing in close proximity or tag teaming through team briefings. The time spent bouncing theories off one and another. Every comment, every glance. Every single moment in each others presence. It was this one that was the most unbelievable.

Nell and Eric were finally going on a date.

"Hi," Nell greeted.

"Hey," Eric returned, "is that musk I smell?"

"Yeah," Nell admitted, "that would be my perfume."

"Well, you smell very nice tonight," he complimented.

"Thank you," Nell replied, stepping out of the door and locking it behind her. She finally took note of what Eric was wearing; a short sleeved, collared shirt with blue and red stripes. With his trademark fashion item; a pair of shorts.

Together, they made their way to Eric's car, enjoying each others company.

"Where are we going tonight?" Nell asked curiously.

"We are going to dinner," Eric replied cryptically.

"And that would be where?"

"Somewhere."

"So we're playing the cryptic clue game."

"I don't know? Are we?"

When he tried he could be frustrating, but that just made her smile more. He always made her smile and he didn't even need to try.

"One rule first," Nell said.

"What is it?" Eric asked with slight hesitation in his voice.

"Because we spend so much time at work together, when we are out together, no talking about work," she explained simply.

"Okay," he easily agreed, glad that it was nothing major that would linger over them for the rest of the evening.

"So we are driving in the direction of the beach," Nell deducted.

"We live in LA we could be driving in almost any direction and be heading towards a beach," Eric countered.

"Correct, but from where we are, we are less than five minutes from multiple beach side dining restaurants."

When Nate had started to pick up on their feelings for each other, or at least Nell's feelings for Eric. Especially after he read her like a feature article on the front page of the newspaper. She had started hiding her emotions and had learned to read others better; if the slight tone in his previous comment hadn't been enough to tell her, his lack of comment was the deciding point. She'd guessed his plans.

She kept quiet on that topic for the rest of the trip there, which wasn't too long. So when they got there it took a fair amount of will power not to mention anything about her being right.

As they walked from the car to the restaurant they walked with their fingers interlocked. When they arrived one of the waiters came and greeted them at the door.

"Good evening," the waiter spoke in a thick Indian accent, "do you have a reservation?"

"Yes, a table for two, under the name 'Beale'," Eric replied.

He looked through what Nell could assume was the reservation book, "Ah, yes. If you will follow me," the waiter said turning on his heal and walking further into the restaurant.

He walked through the chatter of tables and chairs and other couples, whilst Nell and Eric followed behind him until he reached the door on the other side of the large room and opened it. It revealed a large verandah lined with more tables. It was lit only by lanterns hanging from posts, candles on tables and light from the shining moon.

"Your table," the waiter said, motioning for Eric and Nell to sit.

Eric being the gentleman that he was pulled out Nell's chair for her and once she was seated he pushed it back in.

"Thank you," Eric said to the waiter.

"My pleasure, " he replied, "the menu and wine list are just here," he said gesturing towards the two leather bound books in the centre of the table," he finished before walking away.

Once taking his own seat he noticed the piece of folded parchment that had the word 'Reserved' on it and underneath read: 'table for two, 7:30, Beal'.

He picked up the offending piece of parchment and showed it to Nell.

"Does no one know how to spell?" He asked.

Upon noticing the commonly made mistake, Nell broke into laughter.

Why it was so amusing? It was just was.

Nell took a breath to compose herself, letting the laughing stop on its own account. She took one of the menu's from the middle of the table and examined it, Eric did the same.

Here next to the beach it was peaceful; waves crashing and receding on the shore, the summer air with its floral scent, silent birds chirping in the trees for anyone patient enough to listen for them.

From the pages and pages in the menu filled with everything from burgers and coconut chicken to ice-cream and crème brûlée- which were all pretty well priced- neither one of the knew what they wanted.

"What are you having?" Nell asked.

"Not a clue."

She scanned through the page of the menu that she had open again. She could've easily picked more than five dishes, but of course that said, she would never eat it all and therefore it would be a waste. She considered these options very carefully in her head and ruled out three, leaving only two as options.

Option one: Satay Chicken. As a lover of hot, spicy food, it would be unrealistic for Nell to pass up the Satay Chicken, but then again she had never been here before and wasn't sure how mild or strong the flavour would be.

Option 2: A simple but tasty, piece of flat-head fish and a garden salad.

Decisions, decisions.

She was startled out of her thoughts when an unfamiliar voice spoke.

"Are you ready to order?" The waiter asked.

Nell's vision flicked between the waiter and Eric, a question in her eyes.

"Maybe just a few more minutes," Eric replied, reading Nell's mind exactly.

"Okay, while you decide would you like anything to drink?" the waiter asked, "a bottle of wine; or maybe just a glass?" he suggested.

"Nell?" Eric asked, wanting her input, "I don't mind either way, it's your choice."

Quickly, she picked up the wine menu and scanned though it as she would a classified document; picking out only the necessary information.

"Could we please get a bottle of Merlot," Nell responded turning her head to the waiter who nodded his head and said, "Most certainly, I will be back out with it shortly."

"So," Nell said, turning her head back to Eric, "anything look good?"

"Almost everything," he replied.

"Almost everything?" she questioned.

"Well there are a few questionable items."

"Such as?"

"Lion Fish, Chicken Feet and Ostrich soup."

"Well they get five stars for eccentric dishes."

Eric made no comment, but he smiled the smile that told her that he really actually, in fact, had no comeback to that statement. It was also the smile that made her heart beat faster with its own little unsaid comment when she bested Eric at something.

Still wearing the smile he looked back down at the menu. Having made a final decision he put it down. Nell, of course, didn't need to look again at the menu. Instead she continued her mental 'Pros and Cons' list in her head.

In the end, after much a mental debate, Satay Chicken had won out, and Eric had decided on the Pumpkin and Spinach Risotto.

They chatted and laughed and watched the light bounce off the rippling waves under the moonlight.

00..

"But now at this point in time," Nell continued in between mouthfuls of Satay Chicken and in between laughter, partially from the story, partially from the wine, "you have my oldest brother standing on the dining room table, completely drunk; my older sister sitting inside the now empty fridge holding a half- filled bottle of Gin between her feet; Mum who's absolutely lost it and is yelling at them about why all the food from the fridge is on the floor; why Bella is sitting in the fridge; why Daniel's dancing on the table; why there is a bottle of bleach in the kitchen sink and most importantly why the hell they had broken into the liquor cabinet," she explained, "I had gone to bed long before they'd broken into the liquor cabinet, because I was only fourteen at the time and I wanted no part in my siblings shenanigans so when our parents got home, I was in my room; asleep.

I heard my mother screaming at my older siblings, I woke up and stumbled out of my room because I have NO IDEA what is going on. I walk out of the hallway and when my mum sees me she screams.

"NELL WHAT THE HELL?!"

I'm standing there running every single thing that could have been wrong through my head, and I turn around and look in the hall mirror. My sister must have come into my room when she was bored and had had way too much to drink and bleached half my hair."

"What!" Eric asked, laughing lightly but still slightly shocked, "she bleached half your hair?" he reiterated with wide eyes.

"And it wasn't even streaks. It was just splotches all throughout all of my hair, which when I was fourteen was just above my waist long. So I cut it to shoulder length and dyed it as close as I could to its natural shade."

"That's an oddly funny story."

"It was an oddly funny night, despite the fact that my sister had bleached half my hair," she summarized, Bella and Daniel had been grounded for a month and a half after that incident, and Jackie had to pay for Nell to fix her hair.

"So any weird childhood stories Beale?" she asked.

Eric rooted though his brain for anything. 'Damn' he kept shooting down every suggestion he came up with. Fifth grade camp, the story about Millicent Gruednay, his brother trying to convince him to go clubbing... No. None of those stories would even compare to drunken siblings half bleaching your hair whilst you're asleep. He wanted something a little more crazy.

Alas, he could not think of anything.

"Nope," he replied.

Nell tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow, "there's nothing?" She asked playfully, "not a single thing?"

"Well there's what happened on fifth grade camp, the story of Millicent Grudney and I, or the time my older brother Michel tried to convince me to go clubbing..."

"And was he unsuccessful?"

"Of course."

What about a high school incident?"

"There's the time my mum caught my brother teaching her parrot to swear and throw insults at anyone that walked past," he offered.

"So it was your mum's parrot that your brother was teaching to insult everyone?"

"It was meant to be a joke, our mum was always laughing at something," he explained.

"Sounds like one of my best friends in high school," seeing Eric's slightly confused look she elaborated, "her name was Mimmie, she laughed at absolutely everything. You knew it was a bad day if she wasn't laughing."

"Speaking of bad, that is something that this Risotto is not," Eric commented drastically changing the topic.

"I completely agree. I love this Satay Chicken and want to marry it but, I cannot finish it," Nell agreed sitting back in her chair slightly, and for a minute taking her eyes of her partner sitting in front of her and turning to look out at the ocean. She watched the way that the moonlight darted from wave to wave, not daring to stay in one place for too long, as if afraid of what would come from it.

The waiter that had been waiting on them all evening approached their table once again.

"Are you finished?" he asked, motioning at their plates.

"Yes, thank you," Nell responded before adding, "it was delicious."

"I'll be sure to tell the chef," he said as he picked up their plates and started walking off, before he turned around, and as if on second thought added, "would you like the desert menu?"

They looked at each other, because it was almost as if, when they stared into the others eyes they could tell what they other were thinking. Their decision was made quickly and without verbal discussion.

"No thanks, I think we'll just have the check," Eric replied, graciously turning down the offer.

"Certainly," he said nodding his head, "I'll be back out in a minute," he finished before departing from their company, only to return a short while later holding what both Nell and Eric assumed to be a check. Eric took it from him and Nell shot him a look as he reached for his wallet.

"Dinner was my idea, I should pitch in for some," Nell said forcefully, but not loudly nor sternly.

Normally Eric wouldn't argue with that but this was different.

"I picked out the restaurant," Eric argued.

At hearing his comeback Nell flicked her gaze straight at Eric. The gaze itself contained no strong emotions to the naked eye, but Eric could see through the glamour and to the emotion in her eyes. Nevertheless he didn't back down, for once not letting her look melt him.

He pulled a fifty out of his wallet and placed it inside the check, not once breaking her gaze as he did so nor when he handed it back to the waiter.

She smiled at his bravery, but carefully as if not to let her gaze waver until the waiter spoke again and they both broke away.

"You two have something very special," he said referring to the way they read each others mind's with just a simple glance, "the way you two look at each other to consult a question. You have both found another who is so understanding," he explained, "what you two have is rare," he added as an afterthought.

Nell handed the waiter a five dollar tip before he turned around and walked back telling them to have a good night.

Nell smiled at Eric who returned it. Normally she would have to look away to hide the blush that crept onto her cheeks when he smiled at her like that. This time she did.

When they'd first started working together it was easy to return the smile, then it got harder, not

because her feelings had faltered instead they had some what intensified which, for whatever reason made it not easier, but harder to smile back. Maybe it was because her feelings were indefinitely real and that she didn't want to pass that out or give wrong signals in the meaning behind her smile, so whilst she blushed she'd turn back to whatever she was doing. She figured, considering the fact that they were at dinner together at a nice restaurant that they were, in some way, past that point, but out of habit she still turned away to hide her scarlet cheeks.

"I'll let you pay for dinner but I am buying dessert," Nell said.

"That's a plan I'll agree to."

"This is, of course, after a walk, on the beach."

"Yeah, okay," Eric agreed.

They walked out of the restaurant they same way they came in, but for some reason it seemed quieter, it wasn't the fact that the crowd of people in the restaurant had lowered, but simply that they were too involved in their own lives at the moment to notice anyone else's. For all they knew their existence, together, was the only one that mattered.


	2. Chapter 2- Except Skyfall

Chapter 2- Except Skyfall

A/N- Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, favourited or read my last chapter, this is the next one and picks up where the last one left off. Please enjoy and leave a review.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.

They walked out of the restaurant and past Eric's car where he took his shoes off and put them in the back. He offered to take Nell's wedges but she politely declined, saying that she'd prefer to carry them herself. Eric didn't argue. As they neared the edge of the beach, there was a small drop between the footpath and the start of the sand. Nell stepped off it taking Eric's hand, pulling him down with her.

They landed in the sand; Nell still holding onto Eric's hand. He turned to face her. Not much else could make this night anymore beautiful. A beach side restaurant, a walk along the beach and Nell.

Yes, of course he could imagine his ex-girlfriends, not that there were many, but all of those dates were either disappointing memories, embarrassing memories, or ones that he'd previously washed away with shots of vodka and a bottle of Hetty's whiskey... It was a long story.

To that memory he smiled and let out a small laugh.

"What?" Nell asked.

"I'm just thinking about my methods of extinguishing my previous bad dates."

Nell's smile faltered, "is this a bad date?"

That's when Eric realized what he'd said, "no, no. That's not what I mean. I was thinking about how badly all of my other dates had gone in comparison to this. This. You. It's better," he replied stumbling a bit at the beginning but making an impressive recovery.

Nell smiled as she looked up at Eric whose gaze was fixated on the sea and beyond. He was clearly thinking about something. She sometimes wondered what, before her common sense kicked in and decided she was better off not knowing. Plus it would be a terrible invasion of privacy if she was able to read his mind and thoughts. Nevertheless, she was curious. Again she also did want to walk across the beach, so in full attempts of getting his attention, on tip toe, she reached up and kissed his cheek. Resulting in his head turning and his eyes following hers.

"Come on, Wolfram," Nell pleaded tugging on his hand.

He followed willingly, soon falling into step beside her.

They walked slowly, with their hands intertwined; Nell resting her head on Eric's arm. They strolled along the beach, whose only light was the moon.

"I know we live in the city, but shouldn't some stars be visible?" Nell asked.

Finding this comment slightly strange he looked up at the sky.

"They are covered by what I can only assume is thick cloud," Eric guessed.

Yes, although it did rain in LA, very few times was there ever cloud so thick that you couldn't see a single star.

"The one night that bad weather is forecast, is the one night that I don't want to leave," Nell complained, but unlike everyone else, it didn't sound like she was a whining three-year-old. Instead she sounded like she was simply stating a disappointing fact, that was out of her control.

"I'm sure it will pass," Eric assured, before a piece of contradicting lighting flashed in the sky, "or maybe not," he finished before he was drowned out by the sound of growling thunder.

"Well, that's convenient," Eric remarked sarcastically.

"There's nothing we can do about the weather. Just because the weather wants to intrude on our wonderful evening doesn't mean that we have to end it here," Nell reminded.

"What are you suggesting?"

"Well," she said continuing to walk, "when we've had enough of the beach, or it starts raining, we could either go and find somewhere for dessert or go to one of our places and watch a movie."

"I like the sound of that," Eric agreed, "but not that," he said after hearing another whip crack like sound of thunder.

The storm was definitely getting closer, so they started walking back the way they had come. It was a nice walk. And then the rain started. Thick, wet, drops that were few and far between, falling from the sky. They landed, leaving splotchy shaped, wet indents in the dry sand, turning it wet on contact. Nell and Eric picked up their pace slightly but they weren't in much of a hurry because of the spacing of the drops. This of course was until the storm must have been directly over LA. The rain started pelting down, stinging slightly as they hit Nell's bare arms and obscuring Eric's vision by splattering on his glasses.

Nell let go of Eric's hand and ran for the shelter of a nearby tree. It wore large, flat leaves; clumped closely together but still providing plenty of protection from the unfortunate weather.

Nell was laughing as she was running, which for her was odd, and unnatural, but it was that or singing in the rain. And judging by her not-so-great singing voice that she would never let anyone hear, she was laughing instead.

Eric, who was completely bewildered by the current personality he saw in front of him, was taken slightly by surprise. If it hadn't have been absolutely pounding down with rain he would've stood there in awe. Even after four years she could still amaze him; this girl who he thought he knew, was even more unbelievable than he could imagine. Everything she did or said was a constant surprise that often left him speechless, standing and staring in wonder. This was no different and once again it felt so real and genuine, as if through every action she revealed a little more of her truest self.

He chased after her and was glad when they reached the refuge of the tree. Even with the rain it was still fairly warm, but it could have been snowing at this point in time and they would not have felt it.

Eric stood with his back against the rough trunk of the tree, smiling down at Nell. He held both her hands gently, taking note of the simple, silver bracelet she wore on her left wrist; it was very dainty.

"What was that Rockstar?" Eric asked his voice a mixture of awe, surprise and curiosity.

Nell said nothing, she just smiled back up at him. Her hazel eyes held so much happiness that it gave him the motivation he needed to do something he had only dreamed about for the past two and a half years.

He leant down and kissed her smiling lips. Nell took a step closer to Eric, recapturing his lips to prevent him from pulling away quickly. Their kiss under the mistletoe had been cautious and gentle. They had already spent too many years waiting for the other to make a move, then backing away when an opportunity presented itself. They were both exhausted over the playing the waiting game. They could feel the fire underneath the other's skin caused by their touch.

Nell dropped her wedges onto the sand and reached her arms around Eric's neck. She pushed up onto her toes to get a better angle and to pull herself closer to him.

Eric willingly let Nell lead because he trusted her not to get carried away more than he trusted himself. This of course was until she must have had a temporary lapse in judgement, when she made the kiss more intense.

Neither of them knew what made them pull away. It could have been that they had exhausted their supplies of oxygen or that their self- control had eventually kicked in or maybe just the fact that it was not the last day on Earth and they would probably have more time together in the near future.

The storm was now at its peak and the tree was doing nothing for the rain which was soaking them thoroughly. They pulled back, leaving their noses touching. Eric went to lean back in but Nell pulled back and ran back out into the rain ending in a graceful turn.

"It's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain," she called out as she walked back over taking her wedges from Eric who was standing smiling.

They walked back to Eric's car where he offered Nell a towel that he just happened to have in his car.

"I surf," was his one word explanation when he handed it to her.

It was still a reasonably hot night even with the rain so neither of them were cold as they climbed into Eric's car.

"Okay, so dessert or movie?" Eric asked.

"It's only nine thirty, so we do have time for both," Nell responded with a smile.

"So, ice-cream for dessert and movie at my place?"

"Sure," Nell agreed easily.

"Because, come on I have a much better selection of movies than you do," he added in interests of starting up a playful argument.

"Just because you have almost every musical on DVD does not mean that your collection is better than mine," Nell argued playfully.

"And what do you have to offer?"

"Titanic, Casablanca and every James Bond movie-"

"Except Skyfall," Eric interrupted.

"Except Skyfall," Nell continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

They continued their playful banter until they reached an ice-cream shop and Eric accepted defeat because, to be honest, she did have the better collection. Of course he'd never tell her that. They both got ice-cream and then continued discussion over movie choices.

00..

After much debate on every movie from 'Singing in the Rain' to 'This Means War' they had decided on Indiana Jones- Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Nell had never seen the movie before, whereas Eric clearly had seen it several times before because she could see his lips forming the shape of words as he whispered each and every line. Nell thought it was a cute quirk, part of his very Eric personality, one of his idiosyncrasies.

Nell learned all about Indiana Jones, how he was an archeologist turned part time teacher, part time adventurer. How in this movie he begins his travels by searching for a golden idol and then escaping from the clutches of Belloq, who ends up being the villain for the entirety of the movie. How when Indiana and his companion Marion are captured by the Germans (not Belloq) near the end of the movie they still manage to live. When the Germans went to open up the Ark everyone who was looking perished. Indiana and Marion were not looking, therefore they did not perish.

It wasn't until she knew that Indiana and Marion were safe that she started drifting off slowly. Letting what was once the television screen swirl into blurs of colour.

She didn't actually fall completely asleep because soon the end titles were rolling, and she heard a voice calling her name, pulling her from her daze.

"Nell," Eric said softly, running his hand through her hair, "hey Nelly."

She was slowly dragged from her sleepy haze.

"Sorry I fell asleep and missed the end," she apologized.

"Don't feel sorry. And besides you didn't miss much, just them finding their way to safety and an epilogue that leads into the next movie."

"Mmh hm," Nell said wanting more than anything to go back to sleep.

Eric must have noticed this.

"Do you want to stay here?" Eric offered.

"Mmh hm," she responded.

"I'd sleep on the couch and you could have my bed, but my room's a mess of wires and -" he started hastily explaining before he noticed that she was already sound asleep.

He stood up carefully and drew a blanket over her. It was a really comfy couch and even with Nell fully extended on it there was still room at the end. The advantage of being short.

Eric, having no interest in being a creepy stalker who watched their date sleep, or anybody in that case, took one more look at Nell before he, himself switched off the tv and tiredly wandered towards his room. Unlike Nell it took him quite awhile to get to sleep. He just kept collaging a mental scrapbook of his and Nell's moments together. Adding a page that would be called 'First Date'. But he too eventually drifted off.

00..

It was in the late hours of the morning that Nell woke in an odd place and on what she assumed was an unusually comfortable couch. She could smell what she assumed was pancakes cooking. She sat up and looked over the back of the couch and into the kitchen where Eric stood making pancakes. Through his pherepheral vision Eric saw Nell peek her head over the back of the couch, he turned his head towards her.

"Morning sleepy head."

"Morning Beale," she returned getting up and walking over to him and pressing a kiss into the side of his cheek and as he turned his head, she planted another on his lips.

"So what are you cooking?" Nell asked, even though it was pretty evident that her inital guess had been correct. It was pancakes.

"Pancakes," he responded as he transferred the pancake from the pan to one of the two plates, before turning the stove off.

They ate their pancakes with more than an adiquate amount of golden syrup. Nell noticed that Eric was a surprisingly good cook.

When they were finished, Nell noticed the time. It was quater to ten.

"Thanks for dinner last night, but I'm going to go home becuase I really need to change out of this dress," Nell said.

"We should do that again some time," Eric replied, standing to join her at the door.

"I'll see you on Monday."

"See you on Monday," Eric replied, leaning in to kiss her before she left.

Now the game of 'how long can we hide it from the rest of the team' will begin, Eric thought to himself.

Please review :)


	3. Chapter 3- A Brewing Storm

Actions And Consequences Chapter 3- A Brewing Storm

A/N- Sorry this took me a while to write but it's almost double the length of my last chapter. I wanted to split it but couldn't find the right spot.

Please R&amp;R TheAlphabetSong xx

Disclaimer : I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan.

Chapter 3- A Brewing Storm

Nell walked into OSP, not any time too late nor early so she did not understand why Hetty's gaze was tranfixed on her when she walked in that morning. It was very unsettling knowing that she had a pair of eyes glued on her as she ascended the stairs to the Operations Center.

As her footsteps echoed around the fairly empty Ops centre the only other person who was there turned around to greet her with a smile. She returned it with an accompanying 'good morning'.

"Good morning yourself," he returned.

She went and took her seat next to Eric's.

"Did Hetty seem slightly off to you this morning?" Nell asked after debating the issue for some time.

Eric turned to face her, "she watched me like a hawk from the minute I walked in this morning , " Eric explained.

"Me too," Nell agreed with wide eyes.

"Do you think she knows?" Eric asked worriedly.

"Knows about what?" Nell questioned, her voice incredious, as if she thought there was no way that Hetty knew, but she knew what he meant.

"Knows about us," he replied in a hushed tone.

"How? I know you think she's 'Master of the Entire Known Universe' but she hasn't seen us since Friday," Nell said trying to comfort him.

"What if she found out about our date?"

"You only asked me on Friday," she replied emphasizing 'on', "how did she find out on that same day?"

"However she does half the things she does: with the power that is brought with being Master of the Entire Known Universe," Eric argued.

Nell sighed, "Whatever happens, happens and there will be nothing that we can do about it. So lets just let it play out. We're not even sure if she knows yet."

"Knows about what?" A voice echoed which caused them to both turn around.

"Hetty," Eric said recovering from the shock.

"Mr Beale," she said, "Knows about what?" she repeated.

"About the case we have," Eric covered.

It wasn't actually a lie, he'd gotten the alert just before Nell had walked in.

"I am aware of the case on hand. Team breifing. Rally the troops," Hetty instructed.

In this small window of time Nell quickly skimmed the case file. She'd been undercover a few times before so she knew that she could make it look and sound like she'd read the whole thing without having actually read the entire file.

The majority of the file was just excerpts from a woman named Nancy Filwat's previous arrest warrants and cases that the LAPD, CIA, FBI and NSA had against her. Recently she'd made an announcement that she was planning an escape from prison. A guard had caught wind of it and they'd put her in solitary, but she'd still managed to escape. So now she was on the run and a major threat to national security.

That was all she had gotten time to read because just as she'd finished skimming it Eric walked back into Ops with the team hot on his tail. They all stood in silence for a minute until Hetty spoke.

"Start," she said.

With that word, Eric launched into the breifing with Nell characteristically finishing off his sentences and therefore continuing to explain it. Of which soon after Eric would find a spot in her monologue and then again take the lead. It was the way they had run things for almost five years, one would take over from the other when they could see the other needed a break. They swapped out, tag teamed- what ever you wanted to call it and even after the weekends events nothing had changed.

No change, no difference. If they didn't start getting slopy they should be able to hide it from the team for quite some time.

00..

Nell and Eric had managed to pick up some emails that had been sent between Nancy Flitwat and some of her previous aquaintances. All the emails were of the same context. They were all asking for someone with computer knowledge; quite extensive computer knowledge at that, and from information they could find elsewhere the computer specialist was needed for a job that Nancy had planned for months. All of her previous aquaintances were female and she had only ever attacked or pursued males, therefore they couldn't send a male agent undercover. This was what was being discussed in Ops later that day.

"So who will be going undercover?" Deeks asked.

"Miss Jones will be the one going undercover. She will be posing as a 'business associate' of Sandra Buleiconté, which will be Miss Blye's assumed idenity as one of the receivers of Ms Flitwat's email," Hetty informed.

"But wouldn't Flitwat have previously met Sandra Buleiconté?" Deeks asked.

"No," Eric replied, "Nancy Flitwat's never met Sandra Buleiconté. She's one of her newer associates."

"That makes it a risky play sending Nell and Kensi into the field," Sam stated.

"Miss Flitwat only works with females, therefore Miss Jones and Miss Blye are our only options," Hetty explained.

"Okay, well, what's Nell's name and game?" Callen asked.

"Miss Jones' cover will be as Rachel Edgewood expert in Computer Sciences and Encryption."

"Okay," Nell said the undertone of her voice filled with the excitement of going undercover.

"We have an address for Miss Flitwat. Mr Beale start creating Miss Edgewood, Miss Jones please follow me down to wardrobe and Miss Blye,"Hetty instructed handing Kensi a file, "read up."

00..

Nell stood in front of the long mirror outside wardrobe taking in her altered apperence. It was definitely nothing she was use to. She was wearing black skinny jeans matched with a black and white diamond checked shirt that had thick elastic at the bottom of the sleeves causing them to puff out slightly. The neck of it dipped a little more than usual, but nothing that made her look skanky, the bottom of the shirt was rounded on the back and front making it hang over the top of her jeans. Her hair was pulled into a loose side ponytail with her fringe hanging straight adding a border to her face.

"Here, Miss Jones. These should be your size," Hetty said handing Nell a pair of black pumps.

"Thank you."

They had quite some height on them and were adorned with silver spikes that covered the back of both shoes. She placed them on the ground before stepping into to them. They added just more than six inches to her height, which made looking at herself in the mirror weird, because she was too tall. She took a few steps away from the mirror, wobbling sightly as she did so. She made a mental note to avoid running when possible.

"Now, Miss Jones. Remember all that you want is to get the job done, get paid and get the hell out of there."

"Okay," Nell replied.

"You don't even really want to be there. Be bitter, sarcastic. Try to bring out an emotion from within Miss Flitwat because emotions reveal personality traits and hidden motives," Hetty instructed.

"Okay," Nell answered.

The excitement that she'd felt when she first knew she was going undercover was fading and she was starting to get nervous. The only plus side was that she'd have Kensi for the most part.

Kensi stepped out of the wardrobe a few minutes later wearing a zipped up black leather jacket and tight fitting denim jeans with rips over the knees with a pair of black boots finishing off the outfit. The heals on Kensi's boots were no where near as tall as Nell's were, even still Nell was still shorter than Kensi, but there was only a couple of inches difference instead of an entire foot.

Kensi walked over to the mirror where Nell was standing so that she could straighten out her outfit. Kensi started curling her hair to add some volume to it, so Nell stepped further away from the mirror, wobbling quite noticeably this time.

"Nervous?" Kensi asked noticing the wobble.

"A little but it's mainly because of these," she replied indicating towards her shoes.

"Hetty picked those for you?" Kensi asked, incredious.

Nell nodded.

"She never made me wear anything that tall before," Kensi stated.

"She probably didn't think you needed the height," Nell replied.

"Correct, Miss Jones," Hetty said appearing from nowhere and completely bypassing them and walking past with no further comment.

Eric had finished creating Nell's alias and was walking the stairs from Ops to fill her and Hetty in on all the details of it. He scanned the floor below him and when he spotted the red hair he almost tripped down the last step before the landing. He looked down only long enough to recover his footing before his eyes and focus became tranfixed on the transformation of the wonder not to far away. She looked amazing. Normally she would hide her beauty and intelligence behind cute little dresses and small smiles. Now she wasn't hiding it, she was flaunting it. Since her cover was as a computer tech, why bother hiding it? For this cover her best weapon would be her intellect. So obvioisly the angle she was playing was witty, smart, goddess looking computer tech... 'Get a grip Beale' he said mentally scolding himself.

As Kensi finished curling her hair she put the curler down and glanced around the office. She skipped over an object and then had to do a double take when she realized it was Eric standing incredibly still staring at something in the distance. She followed Eric's line of sight to Nell, it honestly didn't surprise her. They had a spark there; a definite connection, no doubt about it. What did surprise her was that neither had acted on it.

He tried to force himself to snap out of his trance, but only succeeded in partially bringing back reality. He walked down the stairs, half stumbling, half subconsciously knowing where he was going- to his red- haired partner and new girlfriend... Hopefully.

When Kensi noticed Eric walking down the stairs she figured she should give them some time to themselves. She took one last glance at herself in the mirror and being pleased with the impression she, Nell more so, but that they would give she excused herself.

"I'm going to the armoury," Kensi told Nell.

"Okay, I'll see you down there in a minute," Nell replied whem she saw Eric walking towards them.

Kensi walked away just as Eric came over.

"Have you finished creating my alias?" Nell asked.

"Yes, but I'm thinking that I need to add absolutely beautiful to the description," Eric replied.

Nell smiled and blushed quite noticeably, but she didn't try and hide it. She turned to face Eric with the same smile on her face. For once she could actually see directly into his eyes. They were a dull blue, grey colour, and full of emotion she couldn't decifer. Which reminded her of her emotions at the moment and became overwhelmed with a case of nerves. Her smile slipped and moments later so did Eric's.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked concerned.

"I've never done this before. Gone undercover for this long I mean," Nell explained.

"That doesn't sound like the Nell Jones I know," Eric started, "the Nell Jones I know thinks that she can do anything. The Nell Jones I know gave Henrietta Master-of-the-Universe Lange a present of exotic tea in her first week in a new job. She also single handedly managed to almost incapacitate a guy with a gun that was more than twice her size, with only a knife. The Nell Jones I know is ridiculously brave. Unlike her geeky boyfriend."

Nell managed a small smile and slight laugh at this.

"Yeah, well her geeky boyfriend has... other qualities."

"And what would they be Miss Jones?"

"I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Rachel Edgewood, I have PhD in Computer Sciences and a bachelors in Encryption," she said introducing her alias.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Edgewood."

"Yourself as well, but I'm afraid that I am required down in the armoury," she said, "I hope that our paths cross again one day," Nell finished before she started walking away.

"Hey," Eric said, getting her attention causing her to turn back around.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him before he set a kiss on her lips.

"Good luck," Eric said.

"Thank you," she said walking uninterrupted to the armoury.

Eric walked over to Hetty's desk and handed her the files.

"Miss Blye and Jones' alias's?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Thank you."

Eric nodded his head and turned to leave and go back up to Ops.

"Mr Beale," Hetty said, "when Miss Jones gets back we all need to have a talk," she said with a tone she reserved for only the worst news.

"Okay," Eric said before walking back up to Ops.

What did she want to talk about? What did she know? He'd made sure she couldn't see before he'd walked over and double checked before he'd kissed her. Had she over heard? She was known to have the hearing of a bat. She'd busted them once when he was telling Nell about the nightmare he had when he'd started working at OSP. Hetty had been at the doors of the Ops center when Nell had made her comment of 'weird'. He also remembered the time when as Deeks was walking out of Ops he muttered something along the lines of 'says the woman with a dozen alias's' under his breath. Hetty who was quite some distance away replied with 'I heard that Mr Deeks'. She was also known to keep an eye on 'her people' at all times. The time when Deeks had been shot and Hetty had asked him to pull up a certain piece of footage. Callen quickly noted that it was Deeks' house, and Hetty soon after mentioned that she always kept an eye on her agents and told Sam that he was over watering his lawn. He replied with 'I like a lush lawn'.

Hetty had watched both of them walk in that morning. Were they going to sooner or later have to face the consequence of their actions?

00..

Kensi and Nell were parked outside of the house that Nancy Flitwat was staying. All they were waiting for was Eric to confirm that Flitwat was inside the house.

"Nancy Flitwat is inside the house. Kensi and Nell you're up," Eric announced over the comms link.

"Copy that," Kensi replied, before turning to Nell, "you good to go?"

"No, but going now seems like a good time," she replied.

"Okay," Kensi said opening the car door and stepping out followed by Nell.

"Lets go," Nell said once she got out of the car.

They walked over to the house that Flitwat was staying at and were greeted by tattooed pieces of meat that they assumed were Nancy's hired muscle. Kensi being the experienced field agent was the one who took charge.

"Nancy needs help with a job. We're the ones that are here to help," Kensi said.

"She said nothing about visitors," One of her guards stated in an unveiled Russian accent.

"That's because she doesn't know we're coming," Nell imputed from her spot next to Kensi.

"Then how do you know if she needs you on a job?"

"I have a PhD in Computer Science," Nell added.

The muscle didn't make any comment on it, obviously not understanding what it meant so Kensi quickly added a comment.

"I got an email," she added.

The other guy turned around, "yeah. The boss did say somethin' 'bout an email."

"Sandra Buleiconté?" A voice echoed from the door, "do you bring someone with the skills that I need?"

"Yes, I believe that I do."

"Brutus, Clume. Let them pass," Nancy ordered.

Kensi and Nell walked through the gates and into the house where they were greeted by Nancy.

"Nice to finally meet you in person," Kensi greeted.

"You too Miss Buleiconté and your... friend."

"Well, friend is a bit of a stretch," Nell remarked.

"And you're the computer specialist?"

"Rachel Edgewood," Nell said taking a step forward and reaching her hand out.

Nancy took it but kept a straight, non- expressive line on her lips.

"Are you sure she's qualified?" Nancy asked turning to Kensi or the person that she thought was Sandra Buleiconté.

"I have a bachelors in Encryption and a PhD in Computer Science."

"Well isn't that a reassume," Kensi sarcastically remarked.

"I consider it an asset in my line of work," Nell shot back.

"Look, do you want the job or not?" Nancy asked.

"Would I be here if I didn't?"

"Fine, follow me. Both of you," Nancy instructed.

They followed Nancy down the short hallway and into a room with a circular table.

"Sit," Nancy instructed.

"So is this like King Arthur's Knight's of the Round Table?" Nell asked.

Nancy made no response but she pushed a laptop in front of Nell.

"A PhD in Encryption and a bachelors in Computer Science. You don't mind me if I don't take your word for it. Tell me what time the Russian officials land back in Russia."

"Do you want to know where he landed, what plane he flew on, which runway?" Nell asked.

"Just the time will be fine."

"Okay," Nell said as she started typing away.

"Sandra, let's leave her some space to work," Nancy said indicating for Kensi to follow her.

Kensi had read the emails that had been exchanged between Miss Buleiconté and Flitwat therefore was aware that due to 'complications' that took place whilst Flitwat was in prison she had to break 'connections' with her previous computer specialist.

"What happened to your last computer specialist?" Kensi asked.

"She got a taste of her own medicine," Flitwat replied.

"Meaning?"

"She helped me make money withdrawals from other people's bank accounts. One day she got her entire account swiped and I could no longer work with her, so I sorted the problem."

"Okay..." Kensi trailed off, "what do you need me for? Needing Edge is understandable, but you are perfectly capable yourself. I mean, you escaped from prison yourself."

"This job requires some more man- ... Woman power."

"So this is something more than a prison break?"

"All in time, but for now follow me," she said continuing down the hall.

By the time Nell knew that Kensi and Nancy were gone she actually took some time to scan the room for anything of value to her. A cheap impression of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night hung on the back wall of the room. A framed letter of excellence leant up against the side of a bookshelf stacked with texts. But the most surprising thing about the room was the light shade of pink that the room was covered in. All in all it did not fit the phycological profile and personal history that she'd spent all morning absorbed in.

"To be honest Eric," she said in a low voice over her earwig, "this place does not match her profile."

"How so?"

"It has two cheap impressions on the wall, a framed letter of excellence and a bookcase filled with what I assume to be literary texts."

"That is strange."

"Strange indeed. I'll keep looking and tell you what else I find but right now I have a task," she replied turning back to the laptop.

The hallway again was lined with large floor to roof length paintings, mostly cheap knock offs of famous works. At the end of the hall there was a floor length mirror with a bronze embossed frame. It wasn't the frame that Kensi noticed it was the reflective surface that caught her attention. It looked as though it had been shattered and then pieced back together.

"You know they say that breaking a mirror is meant to be bad luck?" Flitwat asked.

"Not that I'm much of a follower in superstitions I do believe that I've heard that one before," Kensi replied.

"It turns out that in the case of the maker of this piece, who formerly owned this residence, had such bad luck that she very willingly gave the property to me."

"So now we're talking about the misfortunes of your previous acquaintances?"

"This one just happened to pull out of the job and put a gun to my head, coincidentally not noticing the knife I already had at the back of her neck," she said turning away from Kensi and running her right middle finger around the edge of 'The Scream' painted by Edvard Munch. She also kicked the floorboard underneath it twice, before swinging the painting towards them to reveal a stairwell.

"This is one thing she didn't know that I put in the house," she said descending the stairs.

She beckoned for Kensi to follow so she did.

There were many stairs on the way down, she couldn't see the bottom, but she suspected that that was from the lack of light.

"One hundred and thirteen," Kensi stated referring to the number of stairs.

"Yes, it's an odd number. The stairs were made in stacks of seven and we were one short so we had to add another. Of course again just another stupid superstition, but people's luck down here generally isn't great either." Nancy explained.

"And why is that?" Kensi asked.

"Because, Miss Buleiconté," she said as she flipped the light switch on, and turned to Kensi, "this is where horrible things happen to people who don't do as I ask," she turned to the room, "Welcome to my torture chamber."

"It's very artful," Kensi said wondering over to admire some of the blades.

"I have my own method for punishment and interrogation."

"I like to think that everybody is different," Kensi replied admiring another tool of which by using would most definitely be against the Geneva convention.

She looked around the room and saw a cross like fixture against a wall with leather restraints on it. A little closer to her there was a tray lined with throwing knives. So that's what it was: a throwing wall. Some unfortunate person would be bound to the wall and then had knives thrown at them.

She walkeld closer to the tray.

"Do you mind?" she asked motioning towards the knives and /wall.l

"Go ahead," Nancy replied.

Kensi picked up a knife and threw it. She watched as it embedded itself in the wall, right on the centre of where the head would be.

"You never mentioned that you could throw a knife."

"Well, you never asked."

"I suppose I didn't, but why don't you throw another."

"Okay," Kensi replied picking up her second knife.

00..

"How's it going?" Eric asked Nell over comms.

"Well in the hour and a half that we've been here I've been asked to find and inform her of what time the Russian officials landed back in Russia and that took me less than five minutes," Nell replied.

"Last time I had to do that it took me about two minutes," Eric challenged.

"Yeah, the difference is that I currently don't have access to the toys that you would have had," she replied.

"That's true."

"You also wouldn't have to be running an illegal search engine in a Dell laptop that looks like it was made in the nineteen hundreds and has been to hell and back," Nell added.

"Who even has a laptop that old?"

"Nancy Flitwat," Eric answered.

"Clearly."

"You think Miss Edgewood is finished yet?" Flitwat asked as she helped Kensi pull her knives out of the wall.

"Edge?" Kensi asked, "she'll have the electrical system of this house rewired by now," Kensi replied neatly aligning the knives back up on the table.

"Then let's go back up."

"Kensi and Flitwat are coming back from down the hall," Nell told Eric.

"Is it all still happy families?"

"At the moment," Nell said dropping back into character as Kensi and Flitwat came back around the corner.

"Did you get the information that I need?"

"No I decided that I'd check my emails instead, but this dinosaur of a laptop wouldn't load them," Nell remarked.

"Quit jerking me around," Flitwat ordered.

Nell let out a laugh before commenting, "Fine, fine. I found it."

"And-" Kensi started.

"Well firstly, it's a PhD in Computer Science and a bachelors in encryption."

"My bad," Flitwat remarked, sarcastically.

"And secondly they landed at four thirty-six this morning which is ten thirty- six over here. At the international terminal in Moscow."

"Okay, thank you. I think you have proven yourself. I will email Miss Buleiconté the details preceding our next encounter."

"Okay," Nell said picking up her bags and walking out with Kensi following behind.

They walked in silence until they reached Kensi's car, were inside and had it in drive.

"Eric, we're out," Nell said.

"Okay, I'll notify Hetty," he replied.

"We're did she take you?" Nell asked Kensi.

"She took me to her torture chamber. The doorway down the stairwell was concealed behind a painting," Kensi answered.

"A torture chamber?"

"Yeah, nothing nice either. Leather binds and throwing knives. She probably has more off display," Kensi explained grimly.

"Did you notice the room?"

"Which one?"

"The one I was in, it was a light shade of pink and had cheap impressionist prints of famous artworks on the wall along with a bookcase filled with literary texts," Nell explained.

"And the framed letter of excellence," Kensi added.

"I saw that as well."

"It doesn't make sense. Why would she have cheap impressions of the prints when she could easily afford them herself," Kensi pondered out loud.

"And there is no evidence in her personal history that could even suggest that she achieved anything to warrant such an award," Nell added before questioning the matter further, "who use to own that house because I doubt she found it in the week since she escaped."

"Nancy said that it was the house of a previous associate of hers. It didn't end too well. She probably just kept it because she had the chamber underneath it."

"Possibly, or maybe for some other reason."

"One that only time will tell," Kensi said regrettably.

They arrived back at the office at about five o'clock that afternoon. Nell was congratulated by the team for such a great job at establishing her cover. They went over to wardrobe and changed. Nell was more than glad to have an excuse to step out of her six inch pieces of hell and to change into something much more comfortable, much more herself. She took her hair out of its side ponytail and let it hang down her back. You could barely see her and Rachel Edgewood as being the same person. Nell was too short, too cute, not fierce enough. But that was on the outside, because on the inside they were very much alike, she was witty, sarcastic, open minded, intelligent. An almost complete contrast to her appearance; almost. It was weird how much different a person could look with some extra height, different make-up and some clothes that contrasted to their first heart.

Once changed she walked back up to Ops to see the one person who hadn't congratulated her. Eric.

She walked in to see him staring blank eyed into his computer screen, deep in though.

"Hey, Eric," she announced, "Eric."

He turned around to face her with a worried expression on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"She knows, Hetty knows."

"Are you sure?"

"She said that once you were back she wanted us three to have a little talk."

Nell sat down.

"How does she know?" she pondered because she truly had not as clue as to how Hetty knew nor found out, "wait, why didn't you tell me?"

"You and Kensi had just left when she told me. I would've told you later but I didn't want to make you unfocused, and I wasn't even sure if Kensi was listening in."

Nell exhaled, and after a pause of making up her mind responded.

"No, actually I'm glad you didn't tell me because I'm an analyst and I would've been more focused on what it was rather than my cover."

"I'm just sorry that I left you in the dark for so long-"

She kissed him to stop him from finishing that sentence.

"Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing," Nell reassured, well she didn't know what she was doing but she figured it was a start.

"Now, when did Hetty say she wanted to speak with us?"

"When you got back."

"Well, I think it's time for us to face the storm rather than dance in it," Nell said grabbing Eric's hand and standing. They walked down the stairs from Ops and across to Hetty's office.

Nell knocked on the wooden support that marked the beginning of Hetty's office.

"Ah," Hetty said looking up from her laptop, "Miss Jones, Mr Beale."

"Yes Hetty," Nell said as they both took a tentative step closer to her desk.

She closed her laptop,"Please take a seat," she said before continuing, "I was in Bosnia in 1963 as part of a joint task-force with the FBI. There were two other agents with me, an agent Ross and an agent Septley. Both a few years younger than I and madly in love. It hadn't affected their work or the operation throughout the four months of recon that we did, nor the further two of planning. When we all infiltrated the company some information was leaked to the Bosnians. Agent Ross managed to escape before they closed in on Agent Septley and I. Ross came in without any backup. It was a one man solo unauthorized rescue mission. He was so head strong and determined to get Septley back that as they were about to get me out they were shot because they let their guard down. Ross let his emotions get the better of him which got both of them shot and killed," she concluded.

"I'm sorry Hetty but I don't see your point," Eric stated, even though he knew exactly what she meant.

Hetty sighed because she knew that it wasn't going to be as easy as she hoped.

"When one of my worker's status changes, whether announced or not, well, I have my ways of knowing," Hetty explained.

Eric took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He did not like where this was going.

"I must say you showed no signs of there being any change in your personal relationship when you walked in this morning. Walking out on Friday on the other hand was another story."

'Great so our cover was blown before we walked in this morning' Nell thought.

"You two must know that it is against all NCIS regulations and protocol that two employees can be romantically involved?"

"Of course we do," Nell replied.

"So, what are you saying?" Eric asked.

Hetty sighed deeply again, new only bad news would come.

"In interests of National security and not compromising this team I am giving you forty- eight hours to figure out the problem at hand."

"But Hetty it hasn't affected our work," Nell argued.

"True, it didn't," Hetty admitted, "but what happens once Nancy Flitwat put Miss Jones into a dangerous situation?" she asked rhetorically, "you'll be emotionally involved and you won't be thinking properly," she paused and composed herself, "I reiterate; you have forty- eight hours to figure it out. I will need an answer by then."

A/N- Please leave a review because it helps me know what you guys like/dislike and what you more/less of. Plus they make me happy!

TheAlphabetSong xx


	4. Chapter 4- A Letter

Actions And Consequences Chapter 4

A/N- Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, sorry it took me so long to post this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, they are property of CBS and Shane Brennan. I also don't own any references to other movies.

Enjoy!

TheAlphabetSong xx

"Hetty-" Nell started.

"I'm sorry Miss Jones, but there will be no further discussion," Hetty said sounding like she meant it. Whether she actually did was the question.

"But what about Kensi and Deeks?" Nell protested further.

"Oh, that was a long conversation with Director Vance and SECNAV that I'm not having again. Let me tell you that they're anything but pleased with Miss Blye and Mr Deeks' situation."

Nell rolled her head in a circle, thinking of another argument.

"Hetty when have you ever been one to do as you've been told?" Eric questioned.

"It's not that I don't think that it will work between you," Hetty explained again, "it is becuase I am being frowned upon by people higher up and I don't like frowning," she continued, "and all that's just from one relationship between my employees, imagine the scandal of two."

Nell was starting to get irritated, but she wasn't going to hide it, "so you're saying that you can't afford to lose one of your best field agents but you could spare a Technical Operator or Intelligence Analyst?" she asked rhetorically.

"I have no intentions of losing anybody," Hetty replied.

There was zero point arguing with her on that.

She turned on her heal and walked up to Ops; gathered her stuff and left.

"Hetty, come on," Eric pleaded.

"I suggest you follow in Miss Jones' footsteps and that the both of you take some time to talk this over," Hetty recommended.

Eric nodded and followed exactly in Nell's footsteps.

00..

Nell should not have been driving in her state of mind so luckly she made it back to her apartment unscathed. She had tried so hard not to cry on the way home that it took her six attempts to insert her key into the lock and a further three to open her door. With her vision blurred she walked in, caring not that her apartment door was still open. She let her bag drop to the ground next to her kitchen table, whilst she got herself a glass of water.

There was a knock on the door even though it was open. She turned to see who it was. Michael, the nice French guy that lived a few doors down stood there.

"Hi Michael," Nell greeted even though she didn't sound very cheery or look the part.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'd be lying if I said I was," Nell replied, turning back to the sink.

"Bad day?"

"Understatement," Nell replied bitterly.

"Understatement of the century," another; more familer voice said from the door.

Eric.

She turned around again and walked into Eric's open arms.

She heard Micheal's retreating footsteps followed by 'good day' as he left.

Eric closed the door and rested his head on top of Nell's encircling his arms around her even more. She curled into him, feeling a warmth that only he could bring. The feeling of absolute completion. The safety net. Her safety net. The person in the world she knew would never let go. She knew if he never let go of her she wouldn't let go of him and even if he did drift away slightly she'd drag him back again.

Eric wasn't great at comforting people, his skill set was pretty much limited to computers, technology and awkwardly rambling. Which meant that by default he was terrible and very inexperienced with relationships becuase he'd spent all of his college years counting cards at the blackjack table, hacking Law Enforcement agencies and pretty much being an all round geek. But, his current method of hugging her and letting her cry into his shirt seemed to be effective so he stuck with it.

She hadn't cried too much becuase she was tougher than she looked, but just for good measure he placed a kiss in her hair.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"No, don't be," Eric comforted, "this isn't your fault, this isn't my fault. This it all on Hetty," Eric replied in a soft tone edged with anger.

"You can't blame this on Hetty," Nell answered, "as much as we both want to. We can't," she said looking up at him, and stepping back slightly.

"Why not?" Eric asked, frustrated, "she was the one who hired both of us."

"She could never have known that this would happen. She could never have known that Kensi and Deeks would happen."

"She 'Master of the Ent-"

"'Entire known Universe'. I know that's what you think, and I partly agree with you on that... At times, but there is no way that anyone could predict the outcome of so many variables, that's beyond even the powers of the mighty Henrietta 'master-of-the-entire-known-universe' Lange," Nell explained, "even though it would be a near impossible idea with ordinary people working ordinary jobs. But in our line of work the number of variables is insane. And not even Hetty could calculate that."

"I know, I just- I don't want the blame of this all to be on us," he replied glumly.

"Especially after what happened to Dom..." Nell added quietly.

That spiked an emotion in Eric that Nell hadn't seen before, or at least in a long time. He turned and walked over to her couch flopping tiredly down onto it. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, and stared down into his lap.

"Is it stupid that I still blame myself for what happened?" Eric asked a while later.

"No," Nell responded sitting down next to Eric on her couch, "it's not stupid that you still blame yourself," she said taking his hand and lacing their fingers together, "it's stupid that you blame yourself in the first place," she expanded, "I never knew Dom, he was before my time. And I don't want to sound insensitive but you can not blame yourself. I didn't know Dom, but I know you. You always do your best. And you try to do better than what is physically possible and that is just on an ordinary case, Dom was a friend. And from what I've heard you found him. Without you no one would've known where to go to rescue him," Nell finished.

"That's not the point I'm trying to make," Eric replied, "the point I'm trying to make is that if even six years later I still blame myself, whether I was at fault or not. In six years from now am I going to blame myself for whatever comes from this?" He asked, "that is why I blame Hetty, because I want someone else to blame besides us."

Nell sighed as she said,"Yeah, it's like that," she replied dismally, tired of being the eternal optimist, "every action has a consequence that someone has to pay. And Hetty is making us pay ours, instead of forcing someone else clean up the mess she's convinced we'll leave."

"But, what do we do about it?" Eric asked.

"Well we have the next two days to figure that out."

"That we do..."

That was what broke Nell, he was just too calm. As far as she knew, it was physically impossible for Eric to yell because he was angry. Yes, she'd heard him yell at her. Once. And it wasn't even yelling he just raised his voice -which for Eric is still a feat- and that was because he was stressed and anxious- never when he was angry. He was just too kind- hearted to yell at anybody; especially her. But sometimes she needed to know that someone else was feeling the same as her. And because he was so consistently calm she always felt as though her feelings were irrational. So because she had no interests in making herself feel guilty by shouting at him- because this was in no way his fault- she was limited to taking deep breaths.

"I hate this," she stated firmly turning over to lean on Eric's shoulder, "because it's one situation that I can't analyze to find a solution "

"Yeah, and anything that doesn't involve technology is not something that I'm particularly good at."

"Well we all have our skill sets."

"I suppose."

"If we stare at it long enough maybe we'll notice something that we didn't."

This was the part when they were meant to start bouncing ideas off each other except Eric spoke.

"Who was that guy you were talking to when I got here?" he asked.

"That was Michael," Nell replied before expanding knowing that he, although he would never admit it, was the jealous type, "he's lived here longer than I have. And he's basically the landlord, because somehow he seems to know when everyone's rent is due... I am yet to discover how," she explained.

"That's not weird at all," Eric responded, "did he have an accent?"

"French."

"Does he know you speak French?" Eric asked, his curiosity piqued.

"No, which also means that he doesn't know that when I'm bored I used to eavesdrop on his phone conversations."

"Miss Jones, how could you?" Eric fake mock asked.

"Guilty as charged," Nell replied, surrendering.

This action sparked a smile from Eric, it was one of his special smiles that she was pretty sure was reserved just for her, but then again she didn't want to get big headed by thinking like that. Of course that didn't stop her from smiling back, what did was Eric standing and walking over to the smallish kitchen his smile slipping as he did so. He took a glass out of one of the top cabinets; that smelt oddly of pine wood. He filled his glass with water from the tap and drank it dry. Leaving the cup upside down on the drying rack he collapsed into his hands as if he were exhausted, which was probably true.

00..

"I'm hungry," Eric stated sometime later, "what about you?"

"I don't have much of an appetite," Nell answered.

"Okay, but I'm going to get something," he stated, pocketing his keys, "you sure you don't want something?"

"I think if I eat it will reappear on the bathroom floor."

"I'll be back," he said impersonating Arnold perfectly, which produced a small smile and laugh out of Nell.

Nell knew that sitting there attempting to analyze the situation would not do any good for her mental health. She was too wired to try and sleep or stop thinking it through. She needed a distraction, anything to de-rail her train of thought.

Music, movie, novel... ? Movie.

Standing up slowly as not to bring on a wave of nausea she eventually made her way over to the DVD cabinet.

Once upon a time they had been in alphabetical order but after she and Eric had started making their movie nights a regular occurrence, other than just happenstance. They would watch one to two movies a night and she'd be too tired to re-arrange them in the morning and therefore she'd just slot them in where ever they fit. Now it was a mess of titles and summaries.

Nell didn't want to watch anything that had even the smallest hint of a romance plot in it which ruled out pretty much every movie in existence.. Okay so maybe that was an exaggeration. It was still rather difficult because most movies involved either a love triangle, love affair, or at least had a happily married couple. There was nothing in her collection that didn't have a romance plot with a happy ending. Actually in a lot of cases that depended upon who you wanted to end up together. Take Twilight for an example, love triangle: Bella, Edward and Jacob. Or even Harry Potter: James, Lily and Snape. There are always people rooting for the character that ends up broken hearted. Many people were all for Team Jacob, but then Bella marries Edward and has his child. So someone is always going to be disappointed with the way that things turn out.

She'd had her head running about Twilight for a while now so she searched through the titles to find it. She put it in the player and watched the screen come alive as she turned on her tv. The movie started with Bella narrating 'I'd never thought much about how I'd die, but dying in the place of someone I love. Seems like a good way to go', as she started re-alphabetizing her DVD collection.

This was why half an hour later when Eric got back he found her sitting on her living room floor surrounded by stacks of DVD's with sticky notes on top of them.

"What are you doing?" he asked putting the bag of Thai food on the bench.

"Distracting myself with a movie and the task of re- alphabetizing my DVD collection," she replied, before adding, "that smells really good, what is it?"

"Thai food," he answered, "Vegetable curry and Penang chicken; and enough in case you change or changed your mind."

"Well it does smell really good so maybe later," Nell said, "but I just started watching Twilight and re-alphabetizing DVD's, now I'm a little bit busy."

"Which Twilight?" Eric asked coming over to sit on the lounge with a bowl of Thai.

"The first one," she answered, "because unlike you I can't start in the middle of a series, watch the next movie then the first and after that the last one."

"Well, I'm sorry that I don't get my story lines confused," Eric said, jokingly.

Nell let out a light laugh because she knew that he was trying to make her feel better because he had confidence that they'd figure it out; confidence was something she was lacking.

Eric didn't pay much attention to the movie playing he, instead watched Nell reorganize her DVD's trying to figure out exactly which stack was what.

"What is your system of reorganization?" Eric asked.

Nell turned her head to face Eric, "It's a little confusing but I'm sure you'll be able to wrap your head around it Beale," she started, "First, I put all the movies into their genres- unsorted," she gestured to some of the half- stacked piles, "next I categorize by rating within each genre, then within each genre and rating I place them in alphabetical order."

Eric was bewildered that someone could even think of an ordering system like that, yes his were ordered, but he did not go to that much trouble to order DVD's.

"Why do you go to so much trouble to sort your DVD's?" Eric asked.

"Because it then takes less time to find what I'm looking for," she replied simply.

"Okay, can I help?" he asked, sliding off the lounge to sit on the floor with Nell.

"You can sort the romance pile."

"Okay."

Working in tandem it only took them ten minutes to sort and put away all the DVD's. After that they were just sitting on her lounge watching the movie.

Nell sat with her legs tucked next to her and with her head resting on Eric's shoulder.

"Why can't life just be like the movies?" Eric asked, even though he knew Nell wanted to avoid the topic.

"Because then life would be scripted and we wouldn't get a choice in what happens," Nell replied softly not taking her eyes of the movie.

"And we get a choice in this?" he asked.

"Normally we're allowed to write our own scripts, but someone else has taken ours away because they don't like our storyline," Nell replied blunt and dismally, "It's like in a book my niece was telling me about last time I saw her," Nell continued, turning to look at Eric, "the book's titled: A Thousand Pieces of You. The main character is a girl called Marguriette, her parents are theoretical physicists they developed a device that allows inter dimensional travel. Before they could test it one of their lab assistants, Paul stole it, killed Meg's father and then ran by jumping dimensions. She had no choice but to take two of the prototypes that another grad student had made fully functional and go after Paul to avenge her father's death. She had her script taken off her so she took someone else's and continued writing."

00..

Hetty walked into OSP the next morning, the sun glistened off the glass windows and splayed itself throughout the office smothering each surface with golden light and warmth.

She walked over to her desk and noticed a letter on it, addressed to her. It had the distinct look of a letter if resignation, formal formatting, neat, loopy handwriting; carefully sealed shut.

She didn't touch it instead she let it sit there, she would open it later once she had taken care of other matters. She put her bag down, started to boil some water for tea, opened her laptop and started working.

Later in the morning after the rest of the team had started to file in she knew it was time that she opened the envelope. She didn't ever want to lose any agent or analyst, or anyone she employed for that matter, she employed only the best of the best at their skills, they were never easy to replace.

She opened the envelope.

"Damn," she sighed.

A/N- Thanks for reading, please leave a review and check out my NCIS LA fanvids on YouTube.

Channel- SomethingAlongTheLinesOf

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